Description

In autumn 2011, Netflix was working to right the ship after publicly stumbling through a price hike and strategic shift and then retreat. The company was changing its business model to focus on streaming video service rather than the DVDs by mail that had brought the company success and praise. One important wrinkle in this business model shift came in the accounting of streaming content. The case describes the rule, FAS 63, that Netflix used to account for streaming content, and the implications for the future of the company that could be attributed to this accounting shift.